The article, “A Web-Based Approach to Strategic Learning of Speech Acts” by Cohen and Ishihara, discusses how researchers had students use e-journaling as a way to reflect on their learning strategies when dealing with different speech acts. This e-journaling provided a way for students to communicate and for the researchers to gain insight into what the students were thinking and how they were incorporating what they were learning.
One benefit I see in e-journaling is just the opportunity students have to reflect on what they are learning and think through the different concepts that are introduced. This is also a good opportunity for instructors to read over what the students have written to gain insight into what the students feel they are learning and where the class needs to focus as a whole. Students could also use this forum to pose questions to the instructor or to other students. (if the e-journals are public) This would be a good for reluctant speakers or for those students who don’t feel comfortable asking questions in the classroom setting.
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I think this is a great idea. Teachers could use e-journaling as an ongoing evaluation tool which can give them a better understanding of how students feel about every aspect of the learning process. Instead of relying on a final evaluation which cannot the overall evaluation of the course and the teacher, teachers could use e-journals to gain a better understanding of their students' difficulties and expectations and accordingly negotiate with them and/or modify their teaching approach.
ReplyDeleteMaria, thanks for your comment!
ReplyDeleteI agree that e-journaling is a unique way for students to reflect on their learning and to get them to hold themselves accountable for what they are learning. If the teacher is involved in reading and commenting on the e-journals, the students might have more incentive to really discuss what areas they are having trouble with or where they need extra help. In this way, the journals are like an ongoing student-teacher conference.
ReplyDeleteOne thing the instructor may need to take into consideration would be class size or blog length. Depending on both of these the instructor could potentially have a lot of additional work outside the classroom that could get overwhelming.
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